To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
@@Coveangel Not a bad idea. But did they even have hazard lights back then? Safety wasn't a very big concern. A friend had a 56 Chevy. Beautiful dash. But a very deadly dash made with hard steel pointy curves. Just a lap seat belt wouldn't save that head to dash part.
@@CrispyCircuits Jay Leno had a joke about the 55 Buick Roadmaster dash, after a wreck they just hose it off and sell the car...or words of that nature.
I am a hotrodder, that started swapping engines and modifying cars in the late 50s. I can tell you from my own experience, that getting the blinker to work properly in some cars back then was incomprehensible magic. It was quite common back then, to see signal lights blinking at the rate in your demonstration. I have dissected a few of those cans, in an attempt to solve the blinking problem, never with any success. You have solved one of life's mysteries for me. I can leave this world now, at peace..
Sometimes you could "bend" the contacts and "arms" around a little bit to alter the rate of the flash, but there was no tweaking that could be done if you significantly altered the bulbs in the vehicle, and hence, the current draw that went through the flasher. That is also why one had to get a "heavy duty" flasher if you put a trailer on the vehicle and added more light bulbs. The trailer lights would change the load through the flasher and sometimes radically alter the flash rate beyond usable. Same thing when it comes to newer cars and replacing the incan bulbs with LED bulbs. Even though the newer cars have the "flasher" built into the BCM, it STILL senses current through the bulbs and changes the flash rate to unusable if a bulb is burned out or missing, and installing LED bulbs raises the same issue on these vehicles also. I have a 1985 Olds Cutlass drag car that I don't run an alternator on. The car still has functioning lights, so I changed all the bulbs to LEDs to draw much less out of the battery. BUT now the flash rate of the directionals was too far off to be usable. Companies make "load resistors" that you install in parallel with the LED bulbs to correct this problem, BUT, they are simply a large, low ohm resistor that hogs a bunch of current to fool the flasher into thinking that the incan bulbs are still installed in the car, and then you are back to drawing just as much current with the LED bulbs as you were BEFORE the switch to the LEDs. Totally defeated the purpose for me of lowering the current draw of the lights by 90% by using LEDs. With an alternator, the load resistors wouldn't have been a big deal. So, I came up with my own version of an electronic flasher module similar to the one in this video, except mine was 555 timer based that controlled a relay. Yep... I had to add a ground to my home brewed flasher unit because just like in the video, the old flasher was simply in parallel with the positive and the bulb, and wouldn't have worked without an added ground. I also replaced the dismal dim 4×6 sealed beam headlights with conversion housings that are still glass on the outside, and look exactly like a factory sealed beam, but the backside of the housing has an H4 socket on it so that you can install any type of bulb that you wish. I ended up putting LED bulbs in the headlights also. With the swap to all LEDs in my entire lighting system, I ended up dropping the current draw from over 20 amps for the 4×6 sealed-beam headlights, tail lights, all the side marker and bumper lights and the 2 license plate lights, down to only several amps. Here's a helpful hint for you.... If you're going to do this to your vehicle, DO USE the proper colored LED bulb if it is used behind a colored lens! Example: For a red tail light or a yellow side marker light USE a yellow LED for the yellow lens, and a red one for a red lens. I tried just using ALL white LEDs behind the colored lenses, and the white LEDs TOTALLY washed the color out, and made the red lenses look pink, and the yellow lenses were like a cream color. The white LEDs were just too bright and too white for the colored lenses, and washed them out BIG time. Once I switched them out for the proper color LED bulb behind the lenses, they REALLY popped and looked VERY nice. For a headlight LED color temperature, 5000k turned out to be my favorite color temp. Any higher and the headlights were too bluish for me to see well at night, and any lower and they resembled the piss poor sealed-beam bulbs that I replaced. 5000k was VERY neutral white, and lit the road up well for my eyes. Your eyes may vary from mine. I can now drive the car on the street, with NO alternator, off and on all day long with a single 200AH Lithium battery and not have rhe battery BMS go into low voltage protect. It will also last an entire weekend of drag racing without having to charge the battery, and it cranks over the 550" 13:1 compression big-block with authority all weekend. Other electrical draws on the car, besides the lights, are 2× 90watt radiator fans, 1 Meziere electric water pump, an MSD 6-AL2 Programmable ignition box with a Blaster 3 ignition coil, and a MagnaFuel Prostar 500 fuel pump. It's hard to believe that I can street drive the car around with all those electrical demands and have the battery last all day without going dead, but it does. The Lithium battery is amazing! It's 3 years old now, and still works as well as day 1. Wasn't cheap, but was worth it. 👍 This is just some helpful hints for anyone to consider that I had learned while converting my entire vehicle lighting system over to LEDs.
My best friend's dad, while growing up, was a Vice President of Tung-Sol. I had former friend's parents and relatives who worked there. I still have a Tung-Sol electric eye module that use to sit on top of a streetlight to control when it came on and when it went off. Even though this has nothing to do with your video, it brought back memories hearing the name Tung-Sol.
Electric Guitar players will be very familiar with the words Tung-Sol as they are one of only several remaining extant Vacuum Tube suppliers for their amplifiers
Imagine a world where every neighbourhood had a mr. Carlson! No electronic device would ever be returned or sent for repair and big techs would not make as much money! I get the feeling there's nothing electric Paul can't repair! Amazing guy!
As an automotive diagnostician, I can’t say enough nice things about Mr. Carlson’s detailed explanation of this flasher. Just like all his other videos, A++!
Typically, whenever you see a solid state replacement of a mechanical component, it's much smaller than the original component. At first, I was thinking to myself "why on earth is this thing so dang big?" However, after watching your explanations, it all made sense. What you created is incredibly robust and should be extremely reliable, something many solid state devices suffer a severe lack of these days. I applaud you for your excellent work. Thank you so much for sharing it!
I have A.D.D. and am very easily side tracked. A good video will be hard pressed to keep my attention for 2 minutes. An excellent video will barely hold me for 5. What then can be said for one that captivated my mentally ill self for over an hour. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Bravo sir, well done. Thank you for sharing.
I have a factory schematic and it’s crazy how they designed the turn signal circuit. I compared it to a Chevy of same year and the Chevy is so much simpler. The way you reverse engineered the convoluted factory design and then to create a solid state replacement , it’s truly impressive. Thanks for all time you put into your videos. I learn something from every one I watch.
The same holds true for fluorescent lamp starters. The old mechanical version uses a bi-metallic strip to make and break contact. The new electronic ones have many components.
If someone were engineering this for production of a million copies, they'd work for a month to find a 3-component design that costs 42 cents (e.g. with a small micro-controller). Mr. C just needs one unit that's absolutely certain to work and can be built of junk box parts as he said. He also obviously loves analog circuits. For these specs, his 30-component design is optimal.
In this case, the complication is the low voltage and high ampere rate that makes for the need to upgrade or improve a little. But you are correct. And talking about voltage - at least in Europe, but I believe in the USA too, what makes analog landline phones somewhat electrically robust, is that they use a little high voltage around 48 volts. I have my self connected pairs of old cranking phones, several hundred meters apart, and connected them just via a single fence wire, and ground via a 30 cm (1 foot) nail in the ground - and it worked! Analog is robust - and it always works - everyone can understand how it works - no DRM, no intervention from grerdy corporations or anything. But actually - some times - the combination of old and new technology is a good way to go - and we see that often on Mr Carlson’s lab.
Yes it is fun making PCB and I have a few made up to be populated on later projects. For years I was scared of how to make PCB and soldering the small part. I am now almost 80 years of age and having so much fun. Thank you Paul for getting me over my fears.
I really enjoy the intellectual attention that you give to every topic. This is why I watch your channel - your presentations always stimulate my brain. :)
you are the best teacher to learn anything about electronics i always love watching your videos your work is so neat and tidy looking forward for more interesting videos
hey that was an very very interesting solution you came up with! And we in all those years never saw you as nervous as in this one :) Thank you for keeping electronics alive and fun!
That 88 rocks! Awesome to see you get s giddy about this project and design. Best educational value out there on electronics for sure. Would never have guess that was the way it was done back then.
Frankly, this video came out in a perfect time for me! I was for some time thinking about replacing flasher modules on my 1959 Morris Isis for solid states, just to make it a little easier and more reliable for everyday driving (Yes, we use it every day, especially my wife. She loves that little car). Problem is that the whole system also has traficators integrated into it, which I really want to keep. The originals were apparently vacuum actuated but that got thrown out in the 1980s when system started leaking air, and replaced by electromagnetic system from Morris Minor. Wiring is a bit wonky, so I was putting the whole thing off because our wiring harness isn't looking remotely stock. But this video inspired me to finally get going and get to work.
That’s a solid design Paul. Thanks for sharing... When I graduated from Electronics Engineering many years ago one of the things I remember my first manager promoted was simplicity. He had hanging on his wall a plaque he had made up with the word KISS in big letters at the top. On the left side he had a flasher disassembled from a GM car and on the right he had an electronic flasher from a Volkswagen disassembled with about 25 components. Transistors, resistors capacitors and relays. I designed a lot of equipment during my working years. It’s a message I never forgot.
Super interesting. Schematic and explanation of function are great. But a session stepping through how you design such a multi-part circuit would be a real winner. Maybe there's already something like that in Patreon? Even so, one public example might be good for Patreon business. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach the man to fish....
For so many years i've been wondering how this type of relays works, in detail , and once again, i am learning from you. Thank you so much for sharing with us all this Informations in this beautiful world of electrics and electronics!
I must admit, I prefer the old style (not THIS old, but the 12V models from the 1980s). They would provide audible feedback, alerting the driver that flasher is still on. UPDATE: YES! You didn't forget this feature! (58:01)
That was such a great vid. I served my apprenticeship in the UK, from 1961 to 1966 (yeh a long time) and although I have never encountered this before, and we had the older 6 volt systems on earlier cars. And 12 volt systems on the 60s vehicles.( We just replaced the flasher unit) The vid is so interesting. I’m absolutely unsure if UK manufactured cars had the same system. Memory fading now from back then,but the unit would probably have been manufactured by Lucas. Excellent vid. Just goes to show you never stop learning. Even at 78.Thank you Paul you have made an ex Apprentice very happy,👍. I’m umm fairly with it on old Radios etc.But there is no way that I could have devised the new circuit for this. That is next level.
In 1964, the Jaguar e-type was positive ground 12 volts. Using a "modern" accessory like a Motorola radio or 8-track player meant using a convertor to create a 12 volt negative ground power supply. I had a '64 e-type OTS with an 8 track! By the way, Lucas switches while reliable when new developed a different set of parameters as they aged, off, flicker, and burn. (:
I seem to remember that not many 6 Volt British Cars had flashing indicators (new fangled American show-offs), you were supposed to put your hand out of the window and signal like you learnt in the Driving Test. I had a Morris Minor and that had "Trafficators" that were little mechanical arms that popped out when you used the Turn Switch, they lit up but didn't flash, if you forgot to cancel them or they were sticky (a very common occurrence) you usually snapped them off when getting out of the car. Also, no one behind you ever saw them so you got a lots of 'beeps'.
@@michaelhall4626 HaHa! I got that saying from a buddy that owned a XKE from the 60's (it was about 1975 at that time). He was having those mystery electrical issues! We needed Mr Carson back then!
When I was a kid in the late 70's we had an old 50's Olds that we used as a run around the back roads / fishing car. It was considered a junker back then, but it ran good enough to get us around the countryside and into pastures. Turn signals never worked on it, we wired them together and just toggled the stalk if we needed to make them flash. This was in the middle of farm country so there wasn't much use for the signals, but even back then they didn't work right. LOL Man, what I wouldn't give to have that old car today. Great video, thank you!!
Just incredible. Okay, so I thought my Winnebago wiring was a nightmare (1968 Ford P-350 chassis) but, this car is worse! I tried installing LED lights for my turn signals/brake lights, with new "for LED bulb" flasher(s) only to be thwarted at every turn. Watching Mr. Carlson try to figure out his wiring was most satisfying. It's like the designer's primary objective was to use as little wiring as as possible. (It took me a bit to realize my little emergency flasher red bulb was using the main, current-hungry bulbs as ground). My vehicle uses two 2-terminal (X+L only) flashers: one for the emergency switch, and the other for the steering column switch. I can't find a wiring diagram anywhere - the Ford one's are close but, different. I don't suppose anyone reading this knows where once can find replacement flashers (like the on Mr. Carlson built?) - of the 12 volt variety with 2 poles!? (Sigh). Brilliant video though!
I did one of these jobs on a Toyota Pickup a few decades ago after doing a very early attempt LED replacement. I ended up using a Basic Stamp 1 Rev B (the old 14-pin 8-IO version, that could take 40V on the supply and had its own 5VDC regulator). The Toyota flasher was a 3-pin unit - power, ground, flash out - so that made it easier to deliver power to the Basic Stamp - one pin was used for load detect using a current sense resistor (10mOhm), a 25mV Zener, and a comparator. Theory was simple, if there is no load, there is no voltage drop on the current sense resistor - the Zener was tied to the flasher side of the current sense resistor and then one side of the comparator, the other side of the comparator to the load side of the current sense resistor. When the current was such that the voltage drop on the load side of the current sensor was more than 2.5Amps it would trip the comparator, which would pull up an IO pin on the Basic Stamp and trigger the loop sequence. Just a P-type MOSFET was needed with a pull-up resistor and a 2N3904 wired to pin 2 drove the Flasher circuit. The Basic Stamp program was pretty simple (pseudo code): Loop: Turn On Pin 2 Sleep 10mSec ::CheckPoint:: If Pin 1 = high Then . Sleep 10mSec . Goto CheckPoint Else . Wait 490mSec . Turn Off Pin 2 . Wait 500mSec Endif Thus resulted in an initial power up state where the flasher output was powered, but with no load the program would be in a short loop testing the comparator output - the 500mSec delay was split to allow either an incandescent or LED load to ramp before a test. When a load appeared the second portion of the on-time delay was allowed to continue, then the turn off period and then repeat as long as the load continued to be present. I later added a 5V steady-tone beeper on another pin, with a short 100mSec "chirp" for every loop cycle - something I hear other electronic turn signal flasher doing now (apparently I should have patented it). This flasher worked for 10+ years until I got rid of the truck due to a growing family and I returned the whole thing to stock. Were I to do it now, I'd skip the comparator and find a PIC that had 2x ADC and just measure directly (allowing for some programmability, and the bulb-out fast flash function).
Mr Carlson, you did such a good job at explaining how the dash panel lights acted as you were testing hooking up the 3 wires, that I was able to draw up the very same circuit, before I seen you draw the second schematic in the video, showing the panel lights. No I did not cheat by skipping ahead in the video.
Love the curious and clever engineering of the circuit. Both tail lights must be okay for the circuit to work because the filaments provide the only path to ground. If one of the panel lights fails to flash, it could be that the opposite tail light has burned out. And the reason the load circuit to the tail lights must activate first is so that it can isolate the panel light that's pointing in the wrong direction. Otherwise, both panel ights would illuminate briefly during each duty cycle. And it's the resistance of the flashing panel light that keeps the in-series tail light dark. Thanks for the explanation. Definitely curious and clever.
As a one time electricial i was baffled by the operation of the three wires inside the car. But with mr Carlson's explanation it makes perfect sense, eventually. A most interesting solution to a very simple but difficult problem. Thank you.
I wish i had a teacher like you to work with on networking. I would walk away understanding everything to do with networking in binary. You have a way of making things so clear a child could understand it.
Amazing educational and historically very interesting indeed. Had no idea how the older blinkers worked nor did I expect the solution to be one of electro mechanical wizardry. Wow, the new redesign looked somewhat complicated on the schematic but not so on the PCB which looked smoothly populated. Excellent work Mr C, once again my knowledge was expanded, thank you.
I totally hear you about soldering being relaxing. Especially when soldering new and clean contacts on a PCB mount connector. Really, a form of meditation.
Oh, I don't know, color me weird, but I like the flash cycle of the original part -- kinda gets me in the mood to watch Repo Man from the 80s for some reason:-) Tremendous video Mr. Paul, sure do appreciate your work!
Professor Carlson, you are the Bees Knees 🤗 at first I wasn’t understanding the issue because the indicator on the dash seem to look perfectly fine, but then after you went into the whole ordeal of explaining that at 6 V, in addition to the fact that a incandescent bulb on the outside, in addition to the fact that it has to blend in possibly with the brake lamp, which of course is always brighter you’re not even gonna see the fact that the turn signal is on and I understand that this is not what we refer to as persistence of vision, but in fact, it’s actually the overall explanation that you’re giving of the fact that low-voltage and I’m assuming rise time of the incandescent bulb are just not up to par with what we would want and consider to be an acceptable safety measure and I can totally see or in this case, totally understand it
That change in the cycle rate when a lamp had failed was a quick way to identify that you had a blown lamp. When older cars didn't have all the sensors and on screen display info. You just had to stop, get out and check back and front to find which lamp was blown or disconnected.
Yeah I wonder if this design could be tweaked to change the duty cycle if the load is different. I’ve seen both flash blink and slow blink when one lamp is out.
Tweaking the current sensor resistor values will create this affect, just lowering their resistance very easily detects a dead bulb. I don't want this though, as If I ever upgrade the lamps, I want the unit to still flash. I always check the lights manually, everyone else should as well.
Excellent video, as usual! This took me way back to when turn signals first came out. Then ones on my dads Jeep pickup died after a month or two. I tried repairing them, since my dad was not going to pay to have something fixed that he thought was superfluous. My electronics knowledge was still in embryo stage, and I faild because I couldn't figure out what the heck they were doing with the circuit. Shoulda had the internet with Mr. Carlson handy. Alas, it would be many years before they came along.
Brilliant design update for that old-school technology (with those little heating elements on bi-metallic switches, current-critical loads, no ground connection, etc.)! And a very clear explanation of the problem--and the solution!
later on those 3 terminal flashers were used to flash side marker lights. it gets even more confusing there because you have side markers that are tied to the opposite side turn signal. I always had a hard time understanding the circuit, but your explanation made it clear. Thanks
Fantastic job , nicely done , far better than the car's original flasher unit .Well done .At the beginning of your video i was extremely confused as to how the two dash board lights were coming on together and then on their own with just three wires to work with , very interesting indeed . I bet back in the day that little wiring trick had a lot of auto electricians pulling their hair out .
Great job Paul, and amazing that your digital replacement circuit needs to be so complex to replace the minimalist design of the original mechanical flasher can. It all works a treat.
Now that I see the solid state replacement of a P229D it becomes apparent how much genius was put into the design of the original 3 point flasher unit. That and how much more genius was put into a solid state replacement! 🏆
Mr. Carlson is a "challenge accepted" kinda guy. Takes a person like that to make sense of things like this. You gotta be supper sharp and have mondo exp. iot troubleshoot crap like this. It would drive any regular person crazy.
Awesome Paul, very interesting and got my brain working again lol When I did electronics at Tech they gave us a practical problem to solve involving lights and projectors and timing - automatic - no circuits, nothing, and we had to design and then build something from the chosen components to solve it, really making the brain tick along nicely, a clever idea to teach. Co-incidentally just after this when I did 555 timers module I got 100% in the test, so they made me sit it again HAHAHA Funny thing is though, I studied the book myself at home coz I took 2 weeks off to rebuild my car motor and did no classwork for that module, that baffled them hehehe. Love your channel man and thankfully screwchoob didn't unsub me here like they've done elsewhere!
2024: I bought a batch of conventional blinker cans from a Detroit-area auto parts store that was going out of business - circa 1997. They come in handy for trailer lighting test boxes, etc. Excellent breakdown as usual. It's incredible how reliable these are - outliving a lot of auto bulbs.
This is great. I've played with flashers since the 80's when my Dad would get me old light bars, Federal Signal was my favorite. I'm doing up an 85 Suburban and this video just happens to coincide with my childhood.
Paul, great work around using discrete circuits no doubt; simple, ascetically correct / discrete and my sincere congrats by all means. Notwithstanding, has anyone suggested and considered specifically a micro controller option? And no, not a Arduino.... For example: Using something in the 18F type PIC's category one could account for duty cycle, any delays necessary, monitor any change (thru inputs) and drop the parts count by several components. Granted an additional 'continual' ground wire would be advantageous, but not entirely necessary if one chose not to go that route. Also again, as an option one could also add "an emergency flasher option" with a second additional single wire employing nothing more than a grounded rocker switch. Just throwing that out there . (I'd be happy to send you a rendition of that design if you were interested.) 😊
Years ago, I devised a flasher using a 12v dpdt relay, a resistor and a capacitor. Calculated the time constant of the RC circuit with the combined resistance of the bulbs with the resistor and the capacitor to have a duty cycle of 50%... Worked fine on our mitsubishi adventure, it has some drawbacks but for its purpose it worked just fine!
wonderful explanation and fantastic car. Congratulations. P.S. it would be interesting to see the entire electrical diagram behind the dash... because it seems very interesting and complicated
Thanks for a very interesting video! It's cool to see analog design in this day and age. Nevertheless, I kept thinking about how easy it would be to implement this with ATtiny. Controlling the dash lights would be trivial too. On top of that, you could add a few useful features, like detecting current changes to ensure that the light-bulb fully light up and extinguish. Also, if no current through the light-bulb is detected (i.e. filament gone), you could prevent dash light from glowing, indicating this way the fault. Possibilities are almost endless 🙂
Watching this video brought me back to when I was maybe 10 years old, so this is the early 70's. I'm with my father in his car and he's driven to some store. He has turned the car off and asked me to sit in the car for a few minutes while he goes inside to buy something. He goes and in a couple minutes, I'm bored. I don't remember exactly what I did, but it was probably some combination of playing with the hazard lights and directional signals. When both were switched on in a car without the engine running, I discovered I could get the radio to come on. The volume would rise and fall in time with the flasher that was clicking away, but it was clearly audible. When my father came back, he was not amused. In retrospect, he probably though that by blinking lights and running the radio when the car wasn't running would drain the battery or something.
Built like a tank! I'd expect nothing less. I really like how you retained the original clicking sound. I have a cheap $3 Chinese made solid state 6-24v 50 watt max universal relay on my old 6v motorcycle, after testing several different cheap ones years ago I found a brand that worked from about 4.5v or higher so were pretty reliable on an 6v motorcycle with crappy electrics and battery. I bought 5 of them in total as I expected them to last about as long as the tank of gas but to give it credit it is still going strong after 9 years and the remaining 4 are still in a box somewhere.. but I think this winter I'll be building something like this as I do miss the original clicking sound.
Impressed with your old school discrete parts configuration. I prefer that route myself. Great work. With all the concerns between panel and body lights and the feedback logic I hate to say it but I think I would have gone microcontroller. I too have replaced OEM modules with home made controllers. Love the challenge, and love seeing them work. I just made a control card for a friends Hup Mobile. What a convoluted mess. It came with the following that didn't work correctly. It is a 6 volt positive ground car, had a 6 volt to 12 volt to negative ground converter, then a special flasher for 12 volt LED turn signals. It just would not work right. I finally just built my own controller from scratch and it works great. See it on my channel. As always, I love watching your work.
![Delco High Performance Radio Receiver! [Repair]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZS3X2Bat8Dw/mqdefault.jpg)
To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
Off topic: What is your favorite electronic replacement for a vibrator circuit? I love restoring old car units, but HATE those noisy vibrators.
Why not add a third function with an additional switch on the dash board somewhere for hazards?
@@Coveangel Not a bad idea. But did they even have hazard lights back then? Safety wasn't a very big concern. A friend had a 56 Chevy. Beautiful dash. But a very deadly dash made with hard steel pointy curves. Just a lap seat belt wouldn't save that head to dash part.
@@CrispyCircuits Jay Leno had a joke about the 55 Buick Roadmaster dash, after a wreck they just hose it off and sell the car...or words of that nature.
@@Coveangel That would make an even more satisfying click!
I am a hotrodder, that started swapping engines and modifying cars in the late 50s. I can tell you from my own experience, that getting the blinker to work properly in some cars back then was incomprehensible magic. It was quite common back then, to see signal lights blinking at the rate in your demonstration. I have dissected a few of those cans, in an attempt to solve the blinking problem, never with any success. You have solved one of life's mysteries for me. I can leave this world now, at peace..
Sometimes you could "bend" the contacts and "arms" around a little bit to alter the rate of the flash, but there was no tweaking that could be done if you significantly altered the bulbs in the vehicle, and hence, the current draw that went through the flasher.
That is also why one had to get a "heavy duty" flasher if you put a trailer on the vehicle and added more light bulbs. The trailer lights would change the load through the flasher and sometimes radically alter the flash rate beyond usable.
Same thing when it comes to newer cars and replacing the incan bulbs with LED bulbs. Even though the newer cars have the "flasher" built into the BCM, it STILL senses current through the bulbs and changes the flash rate to unusable if a bulb is burned out or missing, and installing LED bulbs raises the same issue on these vehicles also.
I have a 1985 Olds Cutlass drag car that I don't run an alternator on. The car still has functioning lights, so I changed all the bulbs to LEDs to draw much less out of the battery. BUT now the flash rate of the directionals was too far off to be usable. Companies make "load resistors" that you install in parallel with the LED bulbs to correct this problem, BUT, they are simply a large, low ohm resistor that hogs a bunch of current to fool the flasher into thinking that the incan bulbs are still installed in the car, and then you are back to drawing just as much current with the LED bulbs as you were BEFORE the switch to the LEDs. Totally defeated the purpose for me of lowering the current draw of the lights by 90% by using LEDs. With an alternator, the load resistors wouldn't have been a big deal.
So, I came up with my own version of an electronic flasher module similar to the one in this video, except mine was 555 timer based that controlled a relay.
Yep... I had to add a ground to my home brewed flasher unit because just like in the video, the old flasher was simply in parallel with the positive and the bulb, and wouldn't have worked without an added ground. I also replaced the dismal dim 4×6 sealed beam headlights with conversion housings that are still glass on the outside, and look exactly like a factory sealed beam, but the backside of the housing has an H4 socket on it so that you can install any type of bulb that you wish. I ended up putting LED bulbs in the headlights also.
With the swap to all LEDs in my entire lighting system, I ended up dropping the current draw from over 20 amps for the 4×6 sealed-beam headlights, tail lights, all the side marker and bumper lights and the 2 license plate lights, down to only several amps.
Here's a helpful hint for you.... If you're going to do this to your vehicle, DO USE the proper colored LED bulb if it is used behind a colored lens! Example: For a red tail light or a yellow side marker light USE a yellow LED for the yellow lens, and a red one for a red lens.
I tried just using ALL white LEDs behind the colored lenses, and the white LEDs TOTALLY washed the color out, and made the red lenses look pink, and the yellow lenses were like a cream color. The white LEDs were just too bright and too white for the colored lenses, and washed them out BIG time. Once I switched them out for the proper color LED bulb behind the lenses, they REALLY popped and looked VERY nice. For a headlight LED color temperature, 5000k turned out to be my favorite color temp. Any higher and the headlights were too bluish for me to see well at night, and any lower and they resembled the piss poor sealed-beam bulbs that I replaced. 5000k was VERY neutral white, and lit the road up well for my eyes. Your eyes may vary from mine.
I can now drive the car on the street, with NO alternator, off and on all day long with a single 200AH Lithium battery and not have rhe battery BMS go into low voltage protect. It will also last an entire weekend of drag racing without having to charge the battery, and it cranks over the 550" 13:1 compression big-block with authority all weekend.
Other electrical draws on the car, besides the lights, are 2× 90watt radiator fans, 1 Meziere electric water pump, an MSD 6-AL2 Programmable ignition box with a Blaster 3 ignition coil, and a MagnaFuel Prostar 500 fuel pump. It's hard to believe that I can street drive the car around with all those electrical demands and have the battery last all day without going dead, but it does. The Lithium battery is amazing! It's 3 years old now, and still works as well as day 1.
Wasn't cheap, but was worth it. 👍
This is just some helpful hints for anyone to consider that I had learned while converting my entire vehicle lighting system over to LEDs.
No one on the internet can come close to explaining anything as you ! Mr Carlson !! You are absolutely wonderful ! 😅
My best friend's dad, while growing up, was a Vice President of Tung-Sol. I had former friend's parents and relatives who worked there. I still have a Tung-Sol electric eye module that use to sit on top of a streetlight to control when it came on and when it went off. Even though this has nothing to do with your video, it brought back memories hearing the name Tung-Sol.
Thanks for sharing your story!
I love these types of stories.
Electric Guitar players will be very familiar with the words Tung-Sol as they are one of only several remaining extant Vacuum Tube suppliers for their amplifiers
Imagine a world where every neighbourhood had a mr. Carlson! No electronic device would ever be returned or sent for repair and big techs would not make as much money! I get the feeling there's nothing electric Paul can't repair! Amazing guy!
I'm glad I never through out my tube tester before finding him.
Excellent video. If only more people actually used turn signals these days
I agree with you 100%. It would be so considerate of others.
I know and it's so simple to do, you hardly have to think or commit any effort...
"Good luck everyone else!"
-Asian Lady
@@20alphabet she love you long time 🤣
@@MrPnew1 That would be Blink you long time.
As an automotive diagnostician, I can’t say enough nice things about Mr. Carlson’s detailed explanation of this flasher. Just like all his other videos, A++!
1 hour video on car turn signal flasher. HA HA LOVE IT. 😊 As usual, I thought I knew all I needed to know. Wrong. I learned a lot. Thanks 👍
Typically, whenever you see a solid state replacement of a mechanical component, it's much smaller than the original component. At first, I was thinking to myself "why on earth is this thing so dang big?" However, after watching your explanations, it all made sense. What you created is incredibly robust and should be extremely reliable, something many solid state devices suffer a severe lack of these days. I applaud you for your excellent work. Thank you so much for sharing it!
I have A.D.D. and am very easily side tracked. A good video will be hard pressed to keep my attention for 2 minutes. An excellent video will barely hold me for 5. What then can be said for one that captivated my mentally ill self for over an hour.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Bravo sir, well done.
Thank you for sharing.
Replacing parts not in production anymore is so helpful and awesome!
I have a factory schematic and it’s crazy how they designed the turn signal circuit. I compared it to a Chevy of same year and the Chevy is so much simpler. The way you reverse engineered the convoluted factory design and then to create a solid state replacement , it’s truly impressive. Thanks for all time you put into your videos. I learn something from every one I watch.
What I find amazing is that it takes over 30 components to replace a rather simple mechanical device.
And still use a mechanical device. Lol
The same holds true for fluorescent lamp starters. The old mechanical version uses a bi-metallic strip to make and break contact. The new electronic ones have many components.
If someone were engineering this for production of a million copies, they'd work for a month to find a 3-component design that costs 42 cents (e.g. with a small micro-controller). Mr. C just needs one unit that's absolutely certain to work and can be built of junk box parts as he said. He also obviously loves analog circuits. For these specs, his 30-component design is optimal.
In this case, the complication is the low voltage and high ampere rate that makes for the need to upgrade or improve a little. But you are correct. And talking about voltage - at least in Europe, but I believe in the USA too, what makes analog landline phones somewhat electrically robust, is that they use a little high voltage around 48 volts. I have my self connected pairs of old cranking phones, several hundred meters apart, and connected them just via a single fence wire, and ground via a 30 cm (1 foot) nail in the ground - and it worked!
Analog is robust - and it always works - everyone can understand how it works - no DRM, no intervention from grerdy corporations or anything.
But actually - some times - the combination of old and new technology is a good way to go - and we see that often on Mr Carlson’s lab.
And one costs less than $30 and the other is probably above $100.
Yes it is fun making PCB and I have a few made up to be populated on later projects.
For years I was scared of how to make PCB and soldering the small part.
I am now almost 80 years of age and having so much fun.
Thank you Paul for getting me over my fears.
You are very welcome Larry!
Greetings from Germany 🙂Wow it's a 1952 Olds 88... Look's absolutely great...! Recognized it right a way. Great project for vintage auto restores.
I really enjoy the intellectual attention that you give to every topic. This is why I watch your channel - your presentations always stimulate my brain. :)
Appreciate the kind words!
Possibly the best explanation about how the flasher works.
This has been puzzling me for a loooong time on 6V vintage japanese motorcycles... Thanks for your, well, lights on that matter!!
you are the best teacher to learn anything about electronics i always love watching your videos your work is so neat and tidy looking forward for more interesting videos
I really like that you went through the whole process to create the replacement flasher.
It's excellent to see content from you far from the usual vaccum tube ones! Love it!
But we still love the vacuum tubes!
I'm surprised he didn't make a vacuum tube equivalent 😂. I'm kidding of course. However I have zero doubt he could have.
Blinking fantastic. Thought of everything - should last for years. Great job, well explained.
hey that was an very very interesting solution you came up with!
And we in all those years never saw you as nervous as in this one :) Thank you for keeping electronics alive and fun!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm not sure if I want to watch a vintage car video, or an electronics video? So thanks for doing both. Nice car!
That 88 rocks! Awesome to see you get s giddy about this project and design. Best educational value out there on electronics for sure. Would never have guess that was the way it was done back then.
Frankly, this video came out in a perfect time for me! I was for some time thinking about replacing flasher modules on my 1959 Morris Isis for solid states, just to make it a little easier and more reliable for everyday driving (Yes, we use it every day, especially my wife. She loves that little car). Problem is that the whole system also has traficators integrated into it, which I really want to keep. The originals were apparently vacuum actuated but that got thrown out in the 1980s when system started leaking air, and replaced by electromagnetic system from Morris Minor. Wiring is a bit wonky, so I was putting the whole thing off because our wiring harness isn't looking remotely stock. But this video inspired me to finally get going and get to work.
That’s a solid design Paul. Thanks for sharing...
When I graduated from Electronics Engineering many years ago one of the things I remember my first manager promoted was simplicity. He had hanging on his wall a plaque he had made up with the word KISS in big letters at the top. On the left side he had a flasher disassembled from a GM car and on the right he had an electronic flasher from a Volkswagen disassembled with about 25 components. Transistors, resistors capacitors and relays. I designed a lot of equipment during my working years. It’s a message I never forgot.
Tons of fun. I especially enjoyed your nervousness (as I would be) and laughed out loud as you completed the wiring. So familiar. Cheers!
Glade you popped up again in my feed! Haven’t seen enough of you lately! Gangbusters blinker project! Thanks!
Welcome back!
Super interesting. Schematic and explanation of function are great. But a session stepping through how you design such a multi-part circuit would be a real winner. Maybe there's already something like that in Patreon? Even so, one public example might be good for Patreon business. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach the man to fish....
For so many years i've been wondering how this type of relays works, in detail , and once again, i am learning from you. Thank you so much for sharing with us all this Informations in this beautiful world of electrics and electronics!
I must admit, I prefer the old style (not THIS old, but the 12V models from the 1980s). They would provide audible feedback, alerting the driver that flasher is still on.
UPDATE: YES! You didn't forget this feature! (58:01)
That was such a great vid. I served my apprenticeship in the UK, from 1961 to 1966 (yeh a long time) and although I have never encountered this before, and we had the older 6 volt systems on earlier cars. And 12 volt systems on the 60s vehicles.( We just replaced the flasher unit) The vid is so interesting. I’m absolutely unsure if UK manufactured cars had the same system. Memory fading now from back then,but the unit would probably have been manufactured by Lucas. Excellent vid. Just goes to show you never stop learning. Even at 78.Thank you Paul you have made an ex Apprentice very happy,👍.
I’m umm fairly with it on old Radios etc.But there is no way that I could have devised the new circuit for this. That is next level.
In 1964, the Jaguar e-type was positive ground 12 volts. Using a "modern" accessory like a Motorola radio or 8-track player meant using a convertor to create a 12 volt negative ground power supply. I had a '64 e-type OTS with an 8 track! By the way, Lucas switches while reliable when new developed a different set of parameters as they aged, off, flicker, and burn. (:
I seem to remember that not many 6 Volt British Cars had flashing indicators (new fangled American show-offs), you were supposed to put your hand out of the window and signal like you learnt in the Driving Test.
I had a Morris Minor and that had "Trafficators" that were little mechanical arms that popped out when you used the Turn Switch, they lit up but didn't flash, if you forgot to cancel them or they were sticky (a very common occurrence) you usually snapped them off when getting out of the car.
Also, no one behind you ever saw them so you got a lots of 'beeps'.
@@gwesco Lucas, the prince of darkness...
@@Flash-FX What would happen if Lucas made a vacuum cleaner?
It would be their only product that didn't suck!
@@michaelhall4626 HaHa! I got that saying from a buddy that owned a XKE from the 60's (it was about 1975 at that time). He was having those mystery electrical issues! We needed Mr Carson back then!
Just from my casual watching of Mr. C's lab over the years I knew we would need some kind of 555 timer!
Same here, I think it's just a low power version!
Good project and nice looking Oldsmobile!
When I was a kid in the late 70's we had an old 50's Olds that we used as a run around the back roads / fishing car. It was considered a junker back then, but it ran good enough to get us around the countryside and into pastures. Turn signals never worked on it, we wired them together and just toggled the stalk if we needed to make them flash. This was in the middle of farm country so there wasn't much use for the signals, but even back then they didn't work right. LOL Man, what I wouldn't give to have that old car today. Great video, thank you!!
Just incredible. Okay, so I thought my Winnebago wiring was a nightmare (1968 Ford P-350 chassis) but, this car is worse! I tried installing LED lights for my turn signals/brake lights, with new "for LED bulb" flasher(s) only to be thwarted at every turn. Watching Mr. Carlson try to figure out his wiring was most satisfying. It's like the designer's primary objective was to use as little wiring as as possible. (It took me a bit to realize my little emergency flasher red bulb was using the main, current-hungry bulbs as ground). My vehicle uses two 2-terminal (X+L only) flashers: one for the emergency switch, and the other for the steering column switch. I can't find a wiring diagram anywhere - the Ford one's are close but, different. I don't suppose anyone reading this knows where once can find replacement flashers (like the on Mr. Carlson built?) - of the 12 volt variety with 2 poles!? (Sigh). Brilliant video though!
I cannot tell you how NOT surprised I am seeing that vehicle parked in the garage.
I did one of these jobs on a Toyota Pickup a few decades ago after doing a very early attempt LED replacement. I ended up using a Basic Stamp 1 Rev B (the old 14-pin 8-IO version, that could take 40V on the supply and had its own 5VDC regulator).
The Toyota flasher was a 3-pin unit - power, ground, flash out - so that made it easier to deliver power to the Basic Stamp - one pin was used for load detect using a current sense resistor (10mOhm), a 25mV Zener, and a comparator. Theory was simple, if there is no load, there is no voltage drop on the current sense resistor - the Zener was tied to the flasher side of the current sense resistor and then one side of the comparator, the other side of the comparator to the load side of the current sense resistor. When the current was such that the voltage drop on the load side of the current sensor was more than 2.5Amps it would trip the comparator, which would pull up an IO pin on the Basic Stamp and trigger the loop sequence.
Just a P-type MOSFET was needed with a pull-up resistor and a 2N3904 wired to pin 2 drove the Flasher circuit.
The Basic Stamp program was pretty simple (pseudo code):
Loop:
Turn On Pin 2
Sleep 10mSec
::CheckPoint::
If Pin 1 = high Then
. Sleep 10mSec
. Goto CheckPoint
Else
. Wait 490mSec
. Turn Off Pin 2
. Wait 500mSec
Endif
Thus resulted in an initial power up state where the flasher output was powered, but with no load the program would be in a short loop testing the comparator output - the 500mSec delay was split to allow either an incandescent or LED load to ramp before a test. When a load appeared the second portion of the on-time delay was allowed to continue, then the turn off period and then repeat as long as the load continued to be present.
I later added a 5V steady-tone beeper on another pin, with a short 100mSec "chirp" for every loop cycle - something I hear other electronic turn signal flasher doing now (apparently I should have patented it).
This flasher worked for 10+ years until I got rid of the truck due to a growing family and I returned the whole thing to stock.
Were I to do it now, I'd skip the comparator and find a PIC that had 2x ADC and just measure directly (allowing for some programmability, and the bulb-out fast flash function).
Mr Carlson, you did such a good job at explaining how the dash panel lights acted as you were testing hooking up the 3 wires, that I was able to draw up the very same circuit, before I seen you draw the second schematic in the video, showing the panel lights. No I did not cheat by skipping ahead in the video.
I have to commend you for going about this the hard way! I would just rewire the circuit. Good Job Paul!!
Love the curious and clever engineering of the circuit. Both tail lights must be okay for the circuit to work because the filaments provide the only path to ground. If one of the panel lights fails to flash, it could be that the opposite tail light has burned out. And the reason the load circuit to the tail lights must activate first is so that it can isolate the panel light that's pointing in the wrong direction. Otherwise, both panel ights would illuminate briefly during each duty cycle. And it's the resistance of the flashing panel light that keeps the in-series tail light dark. Thanks for the explanation. Definitely curious and clever.
I loved this elegant design and implementation, and thank you for explaining the crazy way that it's wired up!
You are so welcome!
As a one time electricial i was baffled by the operation of the three wires inside the car. But with mr Carlson's explanation it makes perfect sense, eventually. A most interesting solution to a very simple but difficult problem. Thank you.
I wish i had a teacher like you to work with on networking. I would walk away understanding everything to do with networking in binary. You have a way of making things so clear a child could understand it.
that is an incredible little circuit!!! I love it, perfect duty cycle!
and I really love your sign off, "bye for now" great video! mike
I was also made in the 50's 😀 So surprised to see 30:24 the path thru the other bulb. I would never have thought to do it this way - very interesting.
Amazing educational and historically very interesting indeed. Had no idea how the older blinkers worked nor did I expect the solution to be one of electro mechanical wizardry. Wow, the new redesign looked somewhat complicated on the schematic but not so on the PCB which looked smoothly populated. Excellent work Mr C, once again my knowledge was expanded, thank you.
I totally hear you about soldering being relaxing. Especially when soldering new and clean contacts on a PCB mount connector. Really, a form of meditation.
Oh, I don't know, color me weird, but I like the flash cycle of the original part -- kinda gets me in the mood to watch Repo Man from the 80s for some reason:-) Tremendous video Mr. Paul, sure do appreciate your work!
Nice!
Schematics:
@11:42
@29:00
@34:25
What a great video and beautiful car. Still kept at 6V... magnificent !
You never cease to amaze me. Nice, very nice.
Professor Carlson, you are the Bees Knees 🤗 at first I wasn’t understanding the issue because the indicator on the dash seem to look perfectly fine, but then after you went into the whole ordeal of explaining that at 6 V, in addition to the fact that a incandescent bulb on the outside, in addition to the fact that it has to blend in possibly with the brake lamp, which of course is always brighter you’re not even gonna see the fact that the turn signal is on and I understand that this is not what we refer to as persistence of vision, but in fact, it’s actually the overall explanation that you’re giving of the fact that low-voltage and I’m assuming rise time of the incandescent bulb are just not up to par with what we would want and consider to be an acceptable safety measure and I can totally see or in this case, totally understand it
Excellent teaching skills. Tung Sol electrical parts used to be very well known.
What a wonderful video, please keep these coming. Thank you.
Oh how I wish I would have met you when I was younger. Thanks
Brillant. Excellent. Enjoyed watching this and learned much. Thank you Paul.
That change in the cycle rate when a lamp had failed was a quick way to identify that you had a blown lamp. When older cars didn't have all the sensors and on screen display info. You just had to stop, get out and check back and front to find which lamp was blown or disconnected.
Yeah I wonder if this design could be tweaked to change the duty cycle if the load is different. I’ve seen both flash blink and slow blink when one lamp is out.
Tweaking the current sensor resistor values will create this affect, just lowering their resistance very easily detects a dead bulb. I don't want this though, as If I ever upgrade the lamps, I want the unit to still flash. I always check the lights manually, everyone else should as well.
@@MrCarlsonsLab there a good point, you could use led bulbs with this design and not worry about the flash duty cycle!
Excellent video, as usual! This took me way back to when turn signals first came out. Then ones on my dads Jeep pickup died after a month or two. I tried repairing them, since my dad was not going to pay to have something fixed that he thought was superfluous.
My electronics knowledge was still in embryo stage, and I faild because I couldn't figure out what the heck they were doing with the circuit. Shoulda had the internet with Mr. Carlson handy. Alas, it would be many years before they came along.
Brilliant design update for that old-school technology (with those little heating elements on bi-metallic switches, current-critical loads, no ground connection, etc.)! And a very clear explanation of the problem--and the solution!
Excellent fix Paul. As always an awesome video!
Your a wealth of knowledge. Awesome job!! This would open a great asset for antique car owners. Cheers
Wow, this was great and love that '88'. Thank you Professor Carlson !!
Masterful explanation, amazing design solution and perfect balance of on/off duty cycle in the finished flasher. Really enjoyable video!
Thank you, I hope you do more of these auto upgrades. 👍
Enjoyed the project and learned much from the detailed explanation. Thanks for your time and quality instruction.
later on those 3 terminal flashers were used to flash side marker lights. it gets even more confusing there because you have side markers that are tied to the opposite side turn signal. I always had a hard time understanding the circuit, but your explanation made it clear. Thanks
Great job on that flasher Paul. I have to agree you got the timing just about perfect.
Still the very best even after 8 years been following this adventure!
Fantastic job , nicely done , far better than the car's original flasher unit .Well done .At the beginning of your video i was extremely confused as to how the two dash board lights were coming on together and then on their own with just three wires to work with , very interesting indeed . I bet back in the day that little wiring trick had a lot of auto electricians pulling their hair out .
Great job Paul, and amazing that your digital replacement circuit needs to be so complex to replace the minimalist design of the original mechanical flasher can. It all works a treat.
That’s a beautiful ride you have there…. beautiful!!
Thanks!
Now that I see the solid state replacement of a P229D it becomes apparent how much genius was put into the design of
the original 3 point flasher unit. That and how much more genius was put into a solid state replacement! 🏆
Mr. Carlson is a "challenge accepted" kinda guy. Takes a person like that to make sense of things like this. You gotta be supper sharp and have mondo exp. iot troubleshoot crap like this. It would drive any regular person crazy.
Awesome Paul, very interesting and got my brain working again lol When I did electronics at Tech they gave us a practical problem to solve involving lights and projectors and timing - automatic - no circuits, nothing, and we had to design and then build something from the chosen components to solve it, really making the brain tick along nicely, a clever idea to teach. Co-incidentally just after this when I did 555 timers module I got 100% in the test, so they made me sit it again HAHAHA Funny thing is though, I studied the book myself at home coz I took 2 weeks off to rebuild my car motor and did no classwork for that module, that baffled them hehehe. Love your channel man and thankfully screwchoob didn't unsub me here like they've done elsewhere!
2024: I bought a batch of conventional blinker cans from a Detroit-area auto parts store that was going out of business - circa 1997. They come in handy for trailer lighting test boxes, etc. Excellent breakdown as usual. It's incredible how reliable these are - outliving a lot of auto bulbs.
Oh man, when you were drawing that second diagram and my brain latched. Iove it
Such a neat project. Nearly makes me wish I had a need to build one for my car.
This is great. I've played with flashers since the 80's when my Dad would get me old light bars, Federal Signal was my favorite. I'm doing up an 85 Suburban and this video just happens to coincide with my childhood.
Paul, great work around using discrete circuits no doubt; simple, ascetically correct / discrete and my sincere congrats by all means. Notwithstanding, has anyone suggested and considered specifically a micro controller option? And no, not a Arduino....
For example: Using something in the 18F type PIC's category one could account for duty cycle, any delays necessary, monitor any change (thru inputs) and drop the parts count by several components. Granted an additional 'continual' ground wire would be advantageous, but not entirely necessary if one chose not to go that route. Also again, as an option one could also add "an emergency flasher option" with a second additional single wire employing nothing more than a grounded rocker switch. Just throwing that out there . (I'd be happy to send you a rendition of that design if you were interested.) 😊
Years ago, I devised a flasher using a 12v dpdt relay, a resistor and a capacitor. Calculated the time constant of the RC circuit with the combined resistance of the bulbs with the resistor and the capacitor to have a duty cycle of 50%...
Worked fine on our mitsubishi adventure, it has some drawbacks but for its purpose it worked just fine!
Excellent project Mr. C, and the results are superb!
Thank you for sharing.
wonderful explanation and fantastic car. Congratulations.
P.S. it would be interesting to see the entire electrical diagram behind the dash... because it seems very interesting and complicated
Excellent fix. Congrats Paul!
Great Job, Mr. Carlson!!!!!
That's some really good project! I'd add conformal coating to make it even more reliable.
Lovely old-timer car :)
Thanks for a very interesting video! It's cool to see analog design in this day and age. Nevertheless, I kept thinking about how easy it would be to implement this with ATtiny. Controlling the dash lights would be trivial too. On top of that, you could add a few useful features, like detecting current changes to ensure that the light-bulb fully light up and extinguish. Also, if no current through the light-bulb is detected (i.e. filament gone), you could prevent dash light from glowing, indicating this way the fault. Possibilities are almost endless 🙂
Thank,you Mr Carlson just when I thought I knew everything about how the 60s & up flasher systems worked lol
I've used many of these 'mechanical' blinkers. Most I have converted to be used as wig-wag alternation front of vehicles lamps. Very simplistic.
Another killer video Mr. Carlson!! Great Job!
Thanks. These circuits always confused me. Now I can understand my 1950 Buick’s signal light circuitry.
I own several classic cars and appreciate the detailed study.
Watching this video brought me back to when I was maybe 10 years old, so this is the early 70's. I'm with my father in his car and he's driven to some store. He has turned the car off and asked me to sit in the car for a few minutes while he goes inside to buy something. He goes and in a couple minutes, I'm bored. I don't remember exactly what I did, but it was probably some combination of playing with the hazard lights and directional signals. When both were switched on in a car without the engine running, I discovered I could get the radio to come on. The volume would rise and fall in time with the flasher that was clicking away, but it was clearly audible.
When my father came back, he was not amused. In retrospect, he probably though that by blinking lights and running the radio when the car wasn't running would drain the battery or something.
Add pressing the brake to the process and the radio plays normally. Been there,done that,circa 1962.
Built like a tank! I'd expect nothing less. I really like how you retained the original clicking sound.
I have a cheap $3 Chinese made solid state 6-24v 50 watt max universal relay on my old 6v motorcycle, after testing several different cheap ones years ago I found a brand that worked from about 4.5v or higher so were pretty reliable on an 6v motorcycle with crappy electrics and battery. I bought 5 of them in total as I expected them to last about as long as the tank of gas but to give it credit it is still going strong after 9 years and the remaining 4 are still in a box somewhere.. but I think this winter I'll be building something like this as I do miss the original clicking sound.
Impressed with your old school discrete parts configuration. I prefer that route myself. Great work. With all the concerns between panel and body lights and the feedback logic I hate to say it but I think I would have gone microcontroller. I too have replaced OEM modules with home made controllers. Love the challenge, and love seeing them work. I just made a control card for a friends Hup Mobile. What a convoluted mess. It came with the following that didn't work correctly. It is a 6 volt positive ground car, had a 6 volt to 12 volt to negative ground converter, then a special flasher for 12 volt LED turn signals. It just would not work right. I finally just built my own controller from scratch and it works great. See it on my channel. As always, I love watching your work.
Mr Carlson sir your videos are always wonderful and knowledgeable thanks for the sharing this video sir 👍 😊😊😊❤❤❤
You are very welcome!
Mrister Carlsons lab your UA-cam videos are awesome my friend
I enjoyed to see Mr Carlson a little bit nervous before testing the new circuit !
Once again mr Carlson awesome stuff big thumbs up